Stationary clamping devices for milling machines, drill presses and other machines are often required, Rotary clamping configurations for other types of machines (such as a lathe, for example) are another need. In environments such as a machine shop it is often necessary to clamp a workpiece in a manner that is fast, accurate and repeatable—without needing constant adjustments. Indeed, it is often useful to have a clamp that will maintain a workpiece in a “centered” configuration without needing to adjust one clamp and then the other to adjust the position of the workpiece.
However, self-centering clamping devices of the prior art are often inaccurate, lack repeatability, cannot be automated and/or are expensive devices that depend on complicated arrangements, such as gear-based systems or rack-and-pinion types of mechanism, to provide the desired self-centering functionality.
Thus, a need remains in the art for a self-centering clamp that is relatively simple in design, yet can repeatedly and accurately provide properly centered clamping of a workpiece.